JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas-- The 59th Medical Wing will conduct training every week beginning Wednesday, May 4, 2022.
All 59th MDW clinics will be closed from 7:00 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday mornings to allow time for readiness training.
“There is going to be a rotating schedule to cover the different categories of the Comprehensive Medical Readiness Program,” said Chief Master Sgt. Marc Schoellkopf, 59th Medical Wing command chief. “These training sessions are critical for us. It is one thing for our medics to set up tents and our expeditionary medical support systems, but they need to be able to see patients with the equipment we use down range which is very different from the equipment we use in our stateside medical facilities.”
Wing senior leaders gave thorough consideration prior to implementing the training plan.
“The decision to break up our routine training day into shorter training sessions was made with patients in mind,” said Schoellkopf. “We are only closed for a couple hours during the week rather than a whole day which would have a greater impact on the accessibility of patient care. The training plan is also better for our medics as it reinforces these perishable skills every week.”
Along with reinforcing skills, the training is vital to ensuring our medics are ready to operate in austere environments.
“In the long run, our patients in a wartime scenario are going to benefit from these training times because our medics are going to be ready to take care of them,” said Schoellkopf. “To put it into perspective, the way we take care of patients at home station versus the way we care for them on the battlefield is a completely different type of medicine. We owe it to our patients to be ready for every scenario.”